Duckett v. Demarco
- Stewart Aaron
- 1:23-cv-00228
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Duckett v. Demarco, Judge Aaron updated Duckett’s address and warned that failing to report changes could lead to a dismissal recommendation.
Anthony Bernard Duckett, who was warned that failing to keep the court informed of address changes could lead to a recommendation that his case be dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute.
What happened
In Duckett v. Demarco, returned court mail showed that Anthony Bernard Duckett might no longer be receiving court orders at the address listed on the docket.
The court found a current address through publicly available correctional-facility databases and asked the Clerk of Court to update the docket and resend several orders. The court reminded Duckett that he must follow court orders and report future address changes.
The court did not dismiss the case. Judge Stewart D. Aaron warned that failing to provide updated contact information could lead him to recommend dismissal without prejudice for failure to prosecute.
The detailed version
- Duckett v. Demarco · No. 1:23-cv-00228
- Stewart Aaron
- Feb. 2, 2024
Background
The court received returned mail sent to Plaintiff Anthony Bernard Duckett concerning orders about substituting an attorney and filing a joint status report. The docket listed Duckett at Rikers Island, but publicly available databases indicated that his current address was at Ulster Correctional Facility.
Court’s Action
The court asked the Clerk of Court to update Duckett’s address on the docket and resend the orders concerning the attorney substitution and joint status report. The court also asked the Clerk to resend two additional orders as a precaution.
The court reminded Duckett that he must comply with court orders and keep the court and defendants informed of address changes. It stated that failing to do so could support dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b), which permits dismissal for failure to prosecute. The court warned that, if Duckett failed to report future contact-information changes, it might recommend to the district judge that the case be dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute.
Disposition
The order updated the mailing information and issued a warning; it did not dismiss the case. Judge Stewart D. Aaron entered the order on February 2, 2024.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.